recursive acronym
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 | This is the JargonFile (V4.00) entry for recursive acronym - Next: Red Book, Prev: recursion |
| :recursive acronym:: /n./ A hackish (and especially MIT) tradition is to choose acronyms/abbreviations that refer humorously to themselves or to other acronyms/abbreviations. The classic examples were two MIT editors called EINE ("EINE Is Not EMACS") and ZWEI ("ZWEI Was EINE Initially"). More recently, there is a Scheme compiler called LIAR (Liar Imitates Apply Recursively), and GNU (q.v., sense 1) stands for "GNUs Not Unix!" -- and a company with the name CYGNUS, which expands to "Cygnus, Your GNU Support". See also mung, EMACS. | |
| * (text is auto-included via JargonExtension by mutante using jargon with VERSION 4.0.0, 24 JUL 1996 - JargonFile by Eric S. Raymond is in the public domain) | |
